PHILISTIA. Central Mint (?). Athenian-styled, circa 420-350 BCE. Rbʾ Šql = Drachm (Silver, 14 mm, 3.22 g, 7 h). Complex hybrid janiform head, with male (?) head facing and female head to right, surmounted by a long-tailed crouching lion to right with reverted head and open jaws; both human heads wearing pearl necklaces; all within circular guilloche-pattern border. Rev. Head of Athena to right, wearing crested Attic helmet decorated with three olive leaves and palmette; in two (?) of the corners, uncertain symbols; all within square guilloche-pattern border within incuse square. Gitler & Tal XIV.35Dc corr. (illustrated as XIV.35Db on pl. LXII in error) = Mildenberg, Imagery, pl. I, 6 = Samuels, Rynearson & Meshorer, Legacy, pl. 1, 9 (this coin). Hendin 6016 var. (with additional symbol in lower right corner). Mildenberg, Palästina, pl. LIX, 90 var. (with additional symbol in lower right corner). Jeselsohn 266 var. = Mildenberg, Vestigia, pl. XXVI, 6 var. = Shoshana I 20008 var. (with additional symbol in lower right corner). Leu Web Auction 30 (2024), 1097 var. (with additional symbol in lower right corner). Sofaer -. Extremely rare, one of just six known specimens, and the only one from this die pair and variety. A wonderful coin, with splendid dark toning over excellent surfaces. The obverse struck slightly off center and with a test cut on the reverse, otherwise, good very fine.



This piece is the only one in the series struck from a different pair of dies. The dies differ not only stylistically – being executed in a much coarser and more distinctly local manner – but also in one small detail: the absence of the symbol in the lower right corner. The engraver clearly copied the original, stylistically much finer die pair. In doing so, he overlooked the symbol at lower right, perhaps because he was working not from the original dies, but from a coin on which the symbol lay off the flan, as on Jeselsohn 266 = Shoshana 20008. Alternatively, its omission may have been due to wear on the model die, as on lot 68 above, where the symbols are only faintly visible. Whether he copied the symbol in the upper left corner or omitted it as well remains unclear, since the relevant part of the design is off the flan on our coin.